As co-working maker space and prototyping lab TechShop Pittsburgh prepares for its final month of occupancy at its current Bakery Square location in Larimer, steadfast members have committed to creating a nonprofit organization.
In an effort to preserve TechShop’s community spirit, member Devin Montgomery will lead Protohaven, a nonprofit set on finding a new home for the maker community.
Due to a $360,000 operations gap, TechShop originally announced in June that its 16,000-square-foot Pittsburgh location would close Sept. 1 unless it found financing from local foundations and corporations. The Redwood City, California-based organization later moved the date to the end of the month after its landlord, Walnut Capital, worked out an agreement with the financially strapped maker space.
At a nearly two-hour meeting Wednesday night at TechShop, at least 35 members discussed a possible move to a new location at 7800 Susquehanna St. in Homewood — a former Westinghouse Electric building rehabbed for artists and manufacturers in 2013.
Downtown-based loan agency Bridgeway Capital owns the site, which is believed to have been built in the 1920s and used as a manufacturing space for specialty electronic equipment.
That industry history ties in well with Protohaven’s vision, but funding is still an issue.
Mr. Montgomery said around $100,000 would cover a minimum move from the Bakery Square location and buildout at the new facility.
Right now, he said, the nonprofit has a total fundraising range in mind, but he declined to give the amount.
Protohaven is dependent on community buy-in, he said. Financiers are hesitant to work with the nonprofit without having an estimate on the number of memberships or a guarantee that the new entity won’t lapse into the same monetary pitfalls as TechShop.
Mr. Montgomery hopes to find 250 members to commit to a recurring membership, which he said would be slightly cheaper than TechShop’s current $200 monthly membership rates.
Members are encouraged to commit to a membership and donate to the mission. Mr. Montgomery was careful to note that if Protohaven does not raise the capital needed to move to a new location, donors will get their money back.
While a few members at the meeting expressed concern about whether or not their contributions would be tax deductible, they were assured any funding would be eligible, as long as it was not used for services.
“Whenever you do something like this, you put yourself up for criticism,” Mr. Montgomery told members, who later applauded his involvement in trying to save TechShop through forming Protohaven.
Members seemed unconcerned about a potential move and rename, as long as the TechShop community atmosphere remained in place.
“I think the idea that people come together in unique ways shows that there’s more than one way to look at it,” said Ben Saks, 32, of Wilkinsburg. “It doesn’t have to be in Bakery Square.”
Stephen Zelenko, 56, of Edgewood, said he wasn’t crazy about the new name, but it was only a superficial detail.
“For us to lose this in Pittsburgh would be devastating,” he said. “You can close TechShop, but you can’t close this community.”
Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.
First Published: August 31, 2017, 5:20 p.m.
